Filing safe



C. B. ULRICH FILING SAFE Filed Nov. 22. 1924 ll. I I 1 l A I I .lllAbINVENTOR.

CHARLES 5. ULRICH. mm 1:; m

A TTORNEY.

Fatented es. 6, 1927.

n in ,r

CHARLES B. ULRICH, or JAMESTOWN, NEW YORK.

Miner i ma. I

FILING- earn.

Application filed November 22, 1924. Serial No. 751,537. 1

Heretofore, filing devices as far as I am aware, that have beenproposedi'or the'filing Y in Vertical arrangement of papers, drawings,

etc., ha ve been limited in their application to constructions which atbest have been but semifire-proof. That is to say, although the'constructions be made otsheet metal,

and so somewhat fire resistant, they have i not been fire-proof in thetrue sense of the wordfor the reason that safe constructionshave-heretofore.involved limitations making them non-applicable to fihngdev1ces. To

be fire-proof a safe must be relatively heavy,

its walls must be of relatively thick metal ,tor example sheet steel,and the walls must be spaced asubstantial distance apartand filledwithfire-proof material of onekind or anothe'r'that will retard thepassage. of heat. through the walls to a: highdegree.

Safes constructed in this manner must have.

equally heavy doors which, in order to make them readily operable, havebeen mounted on hinges having vertical pivots or axes. A

construction or" this kind is not adapted to a vertical filing system inwhich itis necessary to open'the top of the casing to get-at thecontents oI the file'and where it'is necessary to economize room andhave the container but little larger thanthe largestsize of papersorother articles to'be filed.

By my invention Iprovide a filingcase or cabinet of standard safeconstruction with a hinged top and counter-balancing devices tocounter-balance the weight of the top, so that the top may be oit'heavysafe construction and yet be readily raised from its closed position toits openposition and-as readily moved from its open position to itsclosed position. By my invention I preferably constructthecounter-balancing devices so thatthe counter-balancing effect for theclosed position of the cover of the casing, is somewhat less than theweight of the result or which the cover will stay positively in itsclosed position and yet not require-a great amount of effort to raiseit; at the same time the construction of thecounter-balancsaing devicesis preferably,suclrthat fol-the -lolly raisedposition of the cover, thel fting cover towardsits closed position.

cover on the counter-balancingdevices, as aefi'ect of thecounter-balancing devices is slightly greater than the, tendency of theraised 'cover to move it to its closed position due to its weight, thusmaintaining the. cover in itsopen position, for Which position however,but small effort is required to move the In the safe constructed asdescribed, I provide filing pockets in vertical arrangement suspendedonmovable cross-bars tosupport the containers of pockets and preferablymaintain the walls of each pocket in contact with each other or asnearly so as the contents will permit, bysuitable spring mechanismbetween the pocketsfiphe effect of which is to maintain the filedsubject matter in vertical position and furthermore to -maintainrelatively small papers or filed articles in the top of the pocketsWhere they arereadily available; Y

My invention will best be understood by reference to the accompanyingdrawings, showing a preferred embodiment v thereof in which f1 v Fig. 1shows my filing; safe in side elevation and sutlic'iently insectionalview-to illustrate the constructionvof the same, 1 p Fig. 2shows inside elevationtwo of the" filing pockets removed from thecasing,

Fig. 3 shows in front elevation 'a partot one ofthe filing pockets'andthemanner-of supporting the pockets from the side wall ofthecas'ing,'andq Fig. 4: is a partial rear elevation of the casving showingthe manner of mounting the similar parts degree of fireprotectionrequired.' The cons V structlon described is employed on allsides,-

of the casingv as well as its -l30tt0 1n,alll: around 1ts upper edgeeachwall 18 prov ded f; with a stepped construction as. indicated at no-12 to receive a similarly-stepped construction.

13 formed in the lower edge of the cover A. 1 c

I 15 and is built in the same manner as the casing and of the samemateriahso' that when the cover is in its closed position, the steppedconstruction of the cover tightly fits the stepped construction of thecasing and thus closes the casing practically air tight and results in aclosed container equallyimpervious of the action of fire from anydirection. I

A filing device of the kind described is necessarily of considerablesize to take care of large drawings, papers and other articles; whichare to be afforded positive protection from the action of fire onaccountof their value. In view of this, the cover of vthe casing iscomparatively heavynnd will weigh for the ordinary size casing, from twoto three hundred pounds. To avoid the excessive labor of raising andhandling the cover, which would be prohibitive under usual conditions ofuse of the filing safe withoutithe aid of mechanical devices of somekind, I provide the cover with counterbalancing devices as follows: Oneach side of the casing I provide a substantial outwardly projectingstud 16, which is'rigidly secured to the casing and on the stud Irotatably mount a lever 17 pivotally connected at 18 with the lower endoi a link 1.9,

the other end of which is pivotally con,

nected with the cover at 20. The lever-'17 is extended beyond its pivotstud 16 to form a sector 17 having a curved periphery engaging a chainorother flexible connection 21 secured at'its lower end to one end of acounter-balancing weight 22. The sector 17 a is of varying radius aboutthe axis of the stud 16 'for different points on the periphcry of thesector,'in such manner that takin into account the decreasing eifortreuired to hold the cover in its raised position as it is moved towardsits vertical position and also thegreater advantage of the lever 17 inraising the cover as it approaches its vertical position, the turningmoment exerted by the counterweight on the'lever 17 for the openposition of the cover indicated in-Fig. 1, will be but slightly inexcess of the force exerted by the weight of the cover in its openposition, on the end of the lever 17 tending to raise the,counterweight.

'Again the radius of the sector where it engages the chain 21 for theclosed position of the cover 14 is such that the turning inc-- mentexerted by the counterweight 22 on the lever 17 is slightly less thanthe turning ;tion and'will not open until a lifting efltort is manuallyexerted onthe cover. The effort required 'to be exerted on'the cover toopen it, will of course dependupon how securely it is desired to havethe cover remain closed and it will at once he understood that thesector 17 may be made soithat a substantial amount of eiiort will berequired to raise the cover 14 ifdesired, or that this lifting effortmay be only a few pounds where there is no need for the cover to be heldin its closed posltlon with any greater amount of? force. 7 I

The counter-balancing construction de scribed 1s employed on eachside-of the easing and, as indicated in back view in Fit.

4:, the chains 21 are secured to the ends or i the counterweight 22, sothat half of the weight of the counterweight is applied to' each of saldchains. Suitable guideways 23 are carried by the casing 10 to engage theends of the counterweight and require it to move-1n a plane immediatelyback of the back'wall of the casing and these guid-eways 23 are providedwith stops 24 for supporting the counterweight in its lowermost positioncorresponding to the open position of the An important consideration inconnection of taking up necessarily more floor space than for thecasing. itself. With my'inr proved counter-balancing devices, it will benoted that the floor space required for the device is not materiallyincreased over what would'be required'for the casing itself, for thereason that the levers 17 may he made of small thickness and thatthe'thickness of thecounterweight and the projection of its guideways 23is not greater than the overhang of the rear edge of the cover in itsopen position. The result is a construction of safe filingmechanismafiording positive pro tection against fire,lwell adapted tofiling purposes and economical of floor space.

To conveniently file papers and other fiat articles in the casing, asupporting bar 25 is secured to the inner will of each side of thecasing in any suitable manner for ex 1 ample by riveting or welding,substantially parallel with the upper edge of the side wall to receivethe notched ends of supporting bars 26 extending laterally across thetop of the casing so that they may he treelv moved from front to rearthereof'on the supporting bars 25. Each forms a support for one'side ofa pocket or container 27 ot fiexible'material, for example fabric orpress board as indicated in Files. 1 and 2,-the lower edges of the wallsof each of the bars 26 pocket being connected'by a looped strip offlexible material 28, preferably of fabric. Reinforcing strips 29 may besecured to the outer surfaces of the pockets 'to stiffen them a ifdesired and between the reinforcin stri as '0 permit." The. springs arepreferably of a kind that will compress into a minimum thickness, forexample wire springs of helico-spiral formation so that in whollycompressed condition each spring'will be no thicker than the wire ofwhich it is made and thus that the space taken up by the springs may bea minimum when the pockets of the file'are entirely filled.

The construction of filing pockets described serves to maintain thepapers and other filed articles in fiat condition and pre-' vents thecontents of any pocket from slipping to the bottom of the pocket, as aresult of which any-filed paper or article 'may be' readily taken fromthe file or inserted therein at any time.

While I have shown my invention in the particular embodiment abovedescribed, it will be understood that I do not limit my- 0 self to thisexact construction as I may employ equivalents known to the art at thetime of the filing of this application without departing from the scopeof the appended claims. r

'What I claim'is: 1. As a means for counterbalancing a cover hinged tothe top of the casing ofa filing cabinet, the combination of leverspivotally supported on opposite sides outside of'said casing, with linkspivotally connecting said levers with said cover, said levers havingsector extensions, flexible'members secured to and depending from theperipheries of said sector extensions in a plane adjacent the back ofsaidcasing, a counter weight secured to'the lower ends of said flexiblemembers, guideways for said counterw'eighnand stops for saidcounterweight at the lower end of its travel, said counter- 59 weightexerting through said links upward pressures on said cover less than thepres suresexerted on said hnksby said cover for nearly closed positionsof said cover and a reversed relation of said pressures for openposition of said cover. r

2. As a means for counterbalancing a cover hinged to the topof thecasing of a filing cabinet, the combination of levers pivo'tallysupported on opposite sides outside having sector extensions, flexiblemembers secured to anddepending from the peripheries of said sectorextensions in a plane adjacent the back of said casing, a counterof saidcasing, with links pivotally connect-- ing said levers with said cover,said levers weight secured to the lower ends of said flex ble members,guideways for said'counterweight, and stops for said counterweight atthe lower endof its travel.

3. As a means 'for counter-balancing a cover'hing'ed to the top of thecasing of a filingcabinet, the combination of levers pivotally supportedon opposite sides of said casing, with links pivotally connecting saidlevers w th said cover, said levers having sector extensions, flexiblemembers secured to and depending from the perlpheries of said sectorextensions in a plane adjacent the back of said casing, acounterweight.secured we a to the'lower ends of said flexible members,guideways'for said counterweight,and stops for said counterweight at thelower end of its travel, said sector extensions being/of varying radius,the longer radii being acted upon bysaid counterweight for theclosedposition of said cover.

4. As a means for counter-balancing a deep cover hinged at its loweredgeto the top of the casing of a filing cabinet, the com bination-of acounterweight back of the casing and movable vertically under the rearoverhang of the cover in its open position,

with devices connecting said counterweight 1 and. cover to exert upwardpressure on the latter, said devices comprising pivotal supports carriedby opposite sides of the cabinet near its upper end, levers rotatableonsaid supports, linkspivotally connecting opposite sides of said coverwith said levers, and members connecting opposite ends of saidcounterweight with said levers.

As a means for counter-balancing a deep cover hinged at its lower edgeto the top of the casing of a filing cabinet, the combination of acounterweight back of' the casing and movable vertically under the rearoverhang of the cover in its open position, with devices connecting saidcounterweight and cover to exert upward pressure on the latter, saiddevices comprising pivotal supports carried by opposite sides of thecabinet nearits upper end, levers rotatable on said supports, linkspivotally connecting opposite sides offsaidcover with said :levers, saidlevers having sector extensions on their ends remote from said links,and fiexible'members secured to said levers and passing around saidsector surfaces and" downwardly thereoverhang of the cover in its openposition,

with devices connecting said counterweight and cover to exert upwardpressure'on' the latter, said?devices-comprising pivotal supportscarried by opposite sides of the cabinet ward thrusts near its uaperend, levers rotatable onsa-id supports, l inks pivotally connectingopposite sides of seidcover with said levers, said levers having sectorextensions on their ends reinctc from said links, and flexible memberssecured to saidlevers and passing around said sector surfaces anddownwardly therefrom to said counterwei ht and secured to opposite endsthereof, said sector extensions each being of varying radius angularly,thereby producing upward thrusts by said links for the closed positionof said cover less than the downward thrusts produced by said cover onsaid links, and for the open position of said cover producing upwardthrusts by said links greater than the down produced by said cover onsaid links. p y I 7. As a means for counter-balancing a deep coverhinged at its lower edge to the top of the casing of a filing cabinet,the comto make the overall width of the cabinet a minimum, andconnections between the ends said counterweight and said levers, saidcounteiwveight being of a thickness from front to rear containing itwithin the rear .overhangof the cover in its open position, therebyreducing the. weight of the cabinet and the floor space required by it:toa minimum.

In witness whereof, I hereunto subscribe my name this 13th day ofNovember, A. D.

CHARLES B, ULRICH.

